How To Select A Great Web Host
Evaluate the types of sites that your web host offers. A lot of the time, free sites offer only static pages, which means you can’t add any custom language scripts. If you need to be able to do dynamic scripting, you may have to pay a web host for that service.
Almost every web host has additional features available in their packages, although the exact add-ons may vary from host to host. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples by selecting plans which are similar. For instance, a host that offers packages that are generally priced lower than other hosts might not necessarily be such a good choice if the key features you need are only available through expensive packages.
Should you consider dedicated hosting? What about shared hosting? If this is your first website and it’s relatively small, a virtual shared server is probably good for now. If you’re moving a large website which already gets thousands or millions of views, shared probably won’t cut it. In a case such as this, consider a dedicated host to best meet your needs.
Always register your business’ domain name on your own, outside of your hosting site. This way, if a shutdown or argument ensues, your valuable domain name will remain protected. This leaves you with no domain control, only your host will have it.
Stick with a provider that’s in the same country as your target audience. For example, if your target market resides within Germany, it is in your best interest to select a provider that operates a data center from within the country’s borders.
Choose monthly payments instead of subscribing for a whole year. The fact is that even supposedly reliable hosts may be ill-suited to your needs later on. It is best to avoid the headache by ensuring you can cancel at any time. If the hosting company goes out of business, service declines or your company outgrows your current hosting plan, you might not be able to get back money that was paid for months that you have not used.
Free Hosting
Are you considering putting your new website onto a free hosting service? There are many disadvantages that come along with the benefits of free hosting services, including lack of backup services, so make sure you are creating your own site backups. If your site goes down, loses a page, etc., you’re not going to get any help from your host.
Pick a web host that can give you room to expand. While HTML doesn’t take up many kilobytes, videos and photographs can. You’ll want to have at least 100 megabytes of space allotted to your account with the ability to add more at a reasonable price.
If a web page hosting provider claims to offer a world of unlimited services and features, beware. For instance, unlimited disk space means you are limited in the kind of files you can upload. The unlimited bandwidth claims may actually be part of a tiered pricing system. Review your contract carefully, consider different kinds of plans and remember that there is, generally, no such thing as unlimited features.